MATLAB: Am I unable to achieve the same functionality using ‘matlab.exe’ with MATLAB 7.5 (R2007b) that I could using matlab.bat in MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)

MATLAB

In MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a) it was possible to successfully run the following DOS command to start a MATLAB cluster processing session:
mpiexec -l -exitcodes -localroot -pwdfile MPI_Options.txt -n 2 -machinefile
MPI_MachineList.txt "C:\Program_Files\Matlab\bin\matlab.bat" -check_malloc
Since one machine was listed in the machine file and told to run two processes, two MATLAB IDE instances appeared. Through manual activity, we could step through source codes running as supervisor and worker processes. It was a wonderful debugging and demonstration capability. mpiexec terminated normally once the codes completed and the IDEs were ended.
Under R2007b, MathWorks eliminated the bat file in favor of an exe file. Now, when the equivalent DOS command is run, mpiexec terminates immediately. Yet, the two IDE instances come up. However, they are not running within
the cluster communications universe. This appears to be because matlab.exe is just causing the real MATLAB executable to be run. matlab.exe immediately terminates after starting the real MATLAB executable.
Is there a way to retain the feature available in R2007a in R2007b, for example is there some flag we can set for R2007b.

Best Answer

In order to work around this issue in MATLAB 7.5 (R2007b), try invoking the underlying executable directly, i.e. ...\bin\win32\MATLAB.exe.
This is effectively what the Distributed Computing Toolbox does when it needs to launch MATLAB in this way, although the MATLAB desktop is not launched.
Also, try "-wait" option which will request the starter executable to wait for the real MATLAB process, thus holding MPIEXEC much like the MATLAB.BAT used to.